Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- Steam PC version review by Lolinia
Developer: Innocent Grey
Publisher: JAST USA
Genre: Visual Novel (Yuri)
Release Date: August 17th, 2016
Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- (aka “Flowers”) is yet another yuri visual novel on Steam. It is developed by Innocent Grey and published on Steam (and their store) by JAST USA. However, Flowers stands out on its own. Set in a Victorian-esque school in Japan, it warms your heart to see the characters grow. You see them learn. You see them falter. You see them practice. Most of all, you see them interact. For this reviewer, more important than just seeing two 2D girls slobber in each other’s mouths, the game truly shines through its music, artwork, and story development. Many thanks to JAST USA for the review copy.
Music:
The music is definitely fantastic. It was relaxing and had a very chill tone to it. The piano was uplifting at times and, at other times, downright depressing. It was very fitting and poignant. There is not an awful lot that I can say about the music. While it was nice, the music admittedly did not keep me drawn into the visual novel as much as the artwork and story did. On the other hand, it didn’t drive me away, either.
Artwork:
It just shines. Similar to shoujo manga styles, the backgrounds and sprites are very well-crafted. Flowers is the type of visual novel that the artwork attracted me first. I had no idea what kind of story this game had other than it was a yuri (Girl x Girl) visual novel. The British-inspired backgrounds really made the game feel like was outside of Japan and the pretty-looking sprites gave my eyes plenty of treats. The CGs also pack a punch.
Story Development:
I may have come for the art, but I definitely stuck around for the story. A brilliant story of how a recluse decides to change herself for the better becomes even better once the element of emotion was added to the story. Flowers is the story of Suoh Shirahane and her school life. As a person who rarely attended public school and was home-schooled for most of her life, she is sheltered and tucked away in her own corner of her mind. With the help of the school’s special Amitié system (Friendship System), she tries to change herself to be more outgoing and less of a shut-in. However, that is not as easy as one would think. The story also does not take this lightly and properly explores the reason she is how she is. Not only that, but it also explores the lives of the other characters and their developments through the game. The story definitely left a good impact on me.
I also very much enjoyed how the game had an intellectual factor. The “quick-time events” where Suoh needed to know certain info in order to progress was actually fun and had me looking up info to things I was culturally oblivious to before. Using the save feature to go back and rando-choice is an option, but not very fast. It’s always refreshing for a visual novel to expand my knowledge and Flowers certainly did that for me.
With all that said, mind you, the game does have its flaws. For one, it is absolutely riddled with grammar and editing mishaps. Sometimes, it was obvious; sometimes, not so obvious. For the most part, though, the reading was solid. Second, the game had a repeat-sentence bug for me. As I can only speak from my experience, sometimes the game would repeat a line that you had just passed. A faux-example would be as follows:
* “What do you mean, Subaru-kun?”, Rem asked with tears in her eyes.
“I love toy yodas, Rem-rin,” he responded.
Rem looked up at him with a smile, as she fully understood that it was all ogre now.
* “What do you mean, Subaru-kun?”, Rem asked with tears in her eyes.
Subaru wrapped his hands around Rem and they looked at Jeep magazines.
The line with the * is the line that shows twice. While it is not too prevalent throughout the game, it happened enough to make me put down reading it for a bit. Finally, the game would sometimes black-out my screen when going fullscreen mode. Instead of immediately going to the game, my screen would turn black and if my mouse went to the other screen, my screen would turn off as if it just went into standby. While this may possibly be an issue with my graphics card, it has only happened with Flowers so far.
Pros:
- Yummy artwork
- Unabashed storytelling
- Relaxing Soundtrack
- Intellectual engagement
Cons:
- Riddled with grammar/spelling errors / QA mistakes
- Fullscreen can be temperamental
- Voices can be unbalanced at times.
For the price of $19.99 on Steam, I highly recommend Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- very much. It’s intellectually gripping at times, comical at others, coquettish when it wants to be, and an overall, very good read. I had fun with its mysteries, learning, and storytelling. Even with the apparent QA fails, the game is actually fun and lovingly crafted. Plus, yuri.
Lolinia gives Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- a Drastik Measure 7.7 out of 10.0 (77).
